KAIROS Policy Briefing Papers Are Written to Help Inform Public Debate on Key Domestic and Foreign Policy Issues

KAIROS Policy Briefing Papers are written to help inform public debate on key domestic and foreign policy issues No. 13 March 2008 Human Rights in the Philippines Heather Orrange and Connie Sorio Having signed and ratified all of the seven core international human rights treaties and a number of their protocols, and as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), the Philippines portrays the positive image of a South East Asian democracy that respects human rights. However, for human rights activists, church workers, journalists, and progressive opposition parties, the reality is very different. Human Rights Seriously Jeopardized Killing with Impunity Since President Gloria Arroyo assumed power in 2001, Despite claims made by representatives of the the human rights record of the country has been Philippines to the HRC that the government is going to abysmal. Despite national and international outcries, great lengths to address the killings, in reality there have extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances and been few if any credible investigations or prosecutions, intense militarization have terrorized the Philippine and witnesses are still not guaranteed protection when population. A report released by the Alliance for the they come forward with complaints. This lack of action Advancement of People’s Rights cites a total of 887 is essentially granting impunity to those perpetrators incidences of extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary committing even the gravest of human rights abuses. executions, and 185 incidences of enforced or However, in August 2006, under intense national and involuntary disappearances in the Philippines from the international pressure, President Arroyo established an time Arroyo assumed power in 2001 to October 2007. investigating commission under the guidance of former Ironically, 277 of such killings have taken place since Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo. The Commission 2006, the year the Philippines was elected as a member released its report in January that there is “certainly of the HRC.1 evidence pointing the finger of suspicion at some The majority of those victimized are human rights elements and personalities in the armed forces.”3 and labour activists, church workers, farmers, Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extra- Indigenous people, and journalists. According to the Judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions reinforced National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, 51 the Melo Commission’s findings in his statement of journalists have been killed during Arroyo’s time in February 2007: “The Armed Forces of the Philippines power, making the Philippines the most dangerous remains in a state of almost total denial…of its need to country for journalists after Iraq. Particularly alarming respond effectively and authentically to the significant is the systemic targeting and killing of church workers. number of killings which have been convincingly Documented cases involved the killing of 25 church attributed to them.”4 people. Four other church people survived attempts on In response to Alston’s report, President Arroyo their lives, and two church members committed suicide vowed to intensify the prosecution and conviction of to escape further torture from the military.2 rogue policy and military elements, which she believed 1 made up less than one percent of all police and military agenda. Advocates for worker rights have been personnel.5 And yet, extra-judicial killings at the hands systematically targeted and killed for demanding just of the military persist with impunity. A Human Rights wages and humane working conditions of foreign Watch report on impunity and extra-judicial killings in companies operating in the Philippines. In October the Philippines stated that they were “unable to uncover 2006, Bishop Alberto Ramento of the Philippine a single case of apparent extra-judicial killing in recent Independent Church, chairperson of the Board of years for which a member of the armed forces was Directors of the Workers’ Assistance Centre (WAC) and successfully prosecuted.”6 a life-long advocate for the rights of Export Processing Zone (EPZ) workers, was stabbed to death in his church The War on Terror: A Justification for State- in Tarlac City. According to WAC, Bishop Ramento’s Sponsored Terror name had been put on the military’s “order of battle,” or With a number of insurgent groups in western hit list, before he was brutally murdered. His murder Mindanao, and the archipelago-wide presence of the came in the midst of two significant strikes by garment Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its workers in the Cavite EPZ. Striking workers have also affiliated armed group the New People’s Army (NPA), been threatened and physically assaulted by armed gangs the Philippines government has some legitimate security suspected of acting in cooperation with national police. concerns. However, the Philippine government has Also at risk are those who are openly critical of responded by counter-insurgency operations and large-scale mining projects in the Philippines. The campaigns of extra-judicial killing, torture and Arroyo government, spurred on by the World Bank, has intimidation. made mining a focal point of its economic recovery A large number of victims of extra-judicial killings program and proposed 24 large-scale mining projects as belonged to legal leftist political organizations, accused “priority projects.” National opposition to mining is by the government of being sympathizers or “front” widespread and well organized. Leaders of major organizations for the CPP/NPA. As a result of the religious organizations, including the Catholic Bishops’ government’s counter terrorism efforts, legitimate Conference of the Philippines, have expressed concern political organizations like Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and over liberalized mining laws that allow for natural New Patriotic Alliance are being labeled as resources to be mined by foreign companies while “subversives,” and a threat to national security by repatriating the majority of their profits.10 According to government officials. While human rights violations Rodolfo Stavenhagen, the UN Special Rapporteur on the against suspected “sympathizers” of the CPP/NPA were situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of part of counter-insurgency campaigns in the 1970s, ‘80s Indigenous people, the lethal combination of and early ‘90s, it has been under the watch of the Arroyo militarization and large-scale mining have led administration that a resurgence of this type of labeling, Indigenous people to coin the expression “development and a corresponding increase in political killings has aggression,” which they blame for a wide range of taken place.7 human rights violations, including murders, massacres, The Arroyo government continued to use the war on and illegal detention.11 Numerous Indigenous leaders, terror as a means to silence legitimate dissent through community organizers and mining activists speaking out the enactment of the Human Security Act (HSA) in July against large-scale mining have received threats, have 2007. With its overly broad definition of terrorism, and gone missing, and have even been killed.12 overly harsh mandatory penalties, the HSA allows the Of particular concern is the presence of Canadian government to transform less serious offenses, such as mining company TVI Pacific, operating on Indigenous legitimate acts of protest, into crimes punishable by a land in Canatuan, Zamboanga del Norte in the southern mandatory 40-year sentence.8 With the infusion of over province of Mindanao. TVI’s operations have resulted $160 million in United States military aid to the in the displacement of community members, Philippines as an ally in the global war on terror, there is environmental degradation and the loss of livelihood for no limit to the capacity of the Philippines government to those living off the land. TVI’s presence has also enforce this law.9 The expected consequence is a further contributed to the militarization of the region, as the increase in political killings, disappearances and other paramilitary forces hired by the company have been human rights abuses. known to threaten and physically assault those standing in opposition to the mine. As TVI expands its Economic Agenda Taking Precedence Over Human operations into the neighboring provinces of the Rights Zamboanga peninsula, those refusing to give their free The Arroyo government’s pursuit of its critics extends to those challenging the country’s current economic 2 prior and informed consent for TVI’s projects risk being The efforts of all of these groups have helped to labeled a terrorist or subversive and being added to the strengthen the voices of civil society groups in the military hit list of so called insurgents. Philippines. They have also helped to put pressure on The corporate social behaviour of TVI spurred a Arroyo and to send a strong message that the world is hearing at Canada’s Subcommittee on Human Rights watching, and will not tolerate the killing of Philippine and International Trade in 2004, where communities citizens. impacted by TVI’s operations in the Philippines In the Philippines itself, a positive development provided the subcommittee with their testimony. A occurred in late 2007 when the Court of Appeals subsequent report by the Standing Committee on implicated General Jovito Palparan and his men in the Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2005 abduction of brothers Reynaldo and Raymond Manalo. highlighted

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